Saints defender Matthew Ferguson provided constant rebound for the Scorpions in their 39-point victory over Port Melbourne.By Marc McGowan
THE Casey Scorpions’ juggernaut kept rolling with a comprehensive 39-point come-from-behind win over Port Melbourne at TEAC Oval on Saturday.
The victory overshadowed another horrid goal-kicking display, with 19 behinds in its 127-point total.
It was an important result for the Scorpions, after dropping last week’s blockbuster clash against the highly fancied Coburg Tigers and gave the club its fifth success in six outings.
Casey now sits in sixth position, with seven wins, seven losses and a draw and a healthy percentage in excess of 100.
To make the triumph even more noteworthy, it was achieved without inspirational captain Nigel Carmody, who was serving a one-game ban for charging Tiger ruckman Angus Graham in the previous round.
And it was not solely the St Kilda-listed stars that delivered the goods for the Scorpions, with a host of Victorian Football League players making strong contributions.
The most impressive showing came from 188-centimetre debutant Daniel Unsworth, who matched up on Borough tall Jeremy Dukes and kept the danger man to just two goals.
Casey knocked up getting the ball, with Saints foursome Jarryn Geary (37 touches), Robert Eddy (27), Andrew McQualter (26) and Andrew Thompson (26) leading the way.
In all, the Scorpions gathered a mammoth 392 possessions to the Borough’s meagre 241 in an imposing performance.
The scoreboard did not reflect the dominance early, however, with Casey’s goalkicking woes reaching comical proportions as it racked up 10 behinds before David Armitage (22) slotted its first major in the second term.
Another two six-pointers followed in the quarter, but so did three more behinds, with the Scorpions entering half-time on a scoreline of 3.13 to be seven points in arrears, despite more shots on goal.
Whether it was some of Casey coach Peter Banfield’s brilliance, or a belated awakening from its slumber, the Scorpions came out with all guns blazing in the third stanza to blow the contest apart.
All of a sudden Casey was on target and it backed up the flogging it was giving Port Melbourne all over the field to drill 10 majors from 12 shots to thunder out to a 36-point buffer.
Scorpion guns Kyle Mathews (24), Troy Makepeace (22) and Steven Harrison (22) headlined the midfield party, while St Kilda backman Matthew Ferguson repelled the few attacks that came his way to do his AFL prospects no harm.
With the result basically already decided at the final break, both teams managed five goals in the fourth term.
Banfield was typically reserved in his pre-match assessment, but was pleased to be back on the winners’ list.
“It was good to have a win. We played solid footy, but we didn’t kick straight early but got our game going eventually and were able to run over the top of them,” he said.
“I suppose when we play good sides we can’t miss those early goals, but our time will come when we will kick straight – I have no doubt about that.”
Casey’s continued good stretch of form even allowed Banfield to joke about his half-time influence on the team.
“I think all of my half-time addresses are pretty special. For us to come out and kick 10 goals, obviously it was very inspiring,” he said.
“All I told them was to be confident and stay positive and it will come.”
With their last three opponents currently sitting outside the top eight, the Scorpions appear certain to feature in September action.
The first of those remaining fixtures, at Bellerive Oval on Saturday at 2pm, is against bottom-placed Tasmania that has scrounged just two wins in 2007.
